Imported
food makes up a substantial and growing portion of the U.S. food supply
and, considering the health and safety concerns of keeping American's
safe, Washington insiders seem oblivious to that part of protecting
American citizens.

To
ensure imported food safety, federal agencies must focus their resources
on high risk foods and coordinate efforts, according
to a report released on October 14 by the Government Accountability
Office.

The
report, submitted to the US Congress and obtained by NewsWithViews.com,
assesses how the Department of Homeland Security's Customs and Border
Protection, the Food and Drug Administration, and the U.S. Department
of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service are addressing challenges
in overseeing the safety of imported food.

It
also assesses how the FDA utilizes resources by working with other entities,
such as state and foreign governments, and attempts to determine how
the FDA is using its Predictive Risk-Based Evaluation for Dynamic Import
Compliance Targeting system to oversee imported food safety.

US
agriculture generates more than $1.5 trillion per year in economic activity
and provides an abundant food supply for Americans and others. There
are continuing concerns about the vulnerability of US agriculture to
the deliberate
introduction of animal and plant diseases by those wishing to harm
American citizens.

"The
big problem is money be spent to monitor food products being imported
into the United States.

So
far, the budget for food safety is minimal when compared to other government
programs. For example, politicians push for vaccinating millions of
Americans against what they characterize as a deadly flu epidemic, yet
they do not seem concerned over a very real threat to all Americans
-- contaminated food," said political strategist Mike Baker.

Federal
agencies also have been conducting vulnerability assessments of the
agriculture infrastructure; have created networks of laboratories capable
of diagnosing animal, plant, and human diseases; have begun efforts
to develop a national veterinary stockpile that intends to include vaccines
against foreign animal diseases; and have created new federal emergency
coordinator positions to help states develop emergency response plans
for the agriculture sector. However, the United States still faces complex
challenges that limit the nation’s ability to respond effectively
to an attack against livestock.

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CBP,
FDA, and FSIS claim they have taken steps to address challenges in ensuring
the safety of the increasing volume of imported food. For example, CBP
maintains that the system importers use to provide information to FDA
on food shipments; FDA electronically reviews food imports and inspects
some foreign food production facilities to prevent contaminated food
from reaching U.S. shores; and FSIS employs an equivalency system that
requires countries to demonstrate that their food safety systems provide
the same level of protection as the U.S. system.

However,
gaps in enforcement and collaboration undermine these efforts. First,
CBP's computer system does not currently notify FDA or FSIS when imported
food shipments arrive at U.S. ports, although efforts are underway to
provide this information to FDA for air and truck shipments.

"This
is a problem we see with law enforcement agencies, intelligence agencies
and other government entities," claims former police detective
and Marine intelligence officer Sidney Frances.

"Whenever
we see multiple government agencies involved in one single function,
there will almost certainly be some kind of Snafu," he added.

This
lack of communication may potentially increase the risk that unsafe
food could enter U.S. commerce without FDA review, particularly at truck
ports. Second, FDA has limited authority to ensure importers' compliance
with its regulations. Third, CBP and FDA do not identify importers with
a unique number; as a result, FDA cannot always target food shipments
originating from high risk importers.

Finally,
CBP faces challenges in managing in-bond shipments--those that move
within the United States without formally entering U.S. commerce--and
such shipments possibly could be diverted into commerce. FDA generally
collaborates with select states and foreign governments on imported
food safety. FDA has entered into a contract, several cooperative agreements,
and informal partnerships for imported food with certain states, and
some state officials told GAO that they would like to collaborate further
with FDA on food imports.

However,
citing legal restrictions, FDA does not fully share certain information,
such as product distribution lists, with states during a recall. This
impedes states' efforts to quickly remove contaminated products from
grocery stores and warehouses. FSIS has begun to make available to the
public a list of retail establishments that have likely received food
products that are subject to a serious recall. FDA is also expanding
efforts to coordinate with other countries.

In
particular, through its Beyond Our Borders initiative, FDA is pushing
the US government to station investigators and technical experts in
China, Europe, and India, to provide technical assistance and gather
information about food manufacturing practices to improve risk-based
screening at U.S. ports.

According
to FDA, inspectors will analyze food shipments using criteria that include
a product's inherent food safety risk and the importer's violative history,
among other things, to estimate each shipment's risk. A 2007 pilot test
indicated that the system improved FDA's ability to identify products
it considers to be high risk while allowing a greater percentage of
products it considers low risk to enter U.S. commerce without a manual
review.

This
lack of communication may potentially increase the risk that unsafe food
could enter U.S. commerce without FDA review, particularly at truck ports.
Second, FDA has limited authority to ensure importers' compliance with
its regulations.